Forever
by EternalRandomChick
Summary: Companion piece to "Into the West." This is a little bit more angsty, since it tells how Rose got into the ether realm when the Doctor arrives. First chapter told from first-person Rose POV; continued by request.
1. Forever

_A/N: So this is my companion piece to my songfic _Into the West._ This is a lot more angsty, since it's from Rose's POV, and it starts out during the goodbye scene in "Doomsday." Since direct quotes are taken from "Doomsday," I highly urge you to have some tissues nearby. Recommended listening for the first part: _"My Heart is Broken"_ by Evanescence, and when the story starts to coincide with _Into the West,_ then put on the last verse of _"My Heart Will Go On." _by Celine Dion. Oh, and when you've finished reading, please review! I'd love to know what you thought about this story!_

* * *

Forever

Four months. That's how long it had been since the Battle of Canary Wharf. Four months since Daleks came to our universe in a Void Ship and allowed the Cybermen to come after, starting a war. Four months since my parallel world father caught me as I hurtled toward the closing breach and brought me back to his dimension. Four months since I had been separated from the Doctor. Four months. Four long, excruciating months. At my darkest times, sometimes I think it would have been better for me if Pete hadn't come back and just let me be sucked into the Void. I still remember the agony and desperation on his face as he reached out for me, the way he screamed my name, before I had been sealed away. If I had been sucked into the Void, I would remember nothing.

_Rose._

Last night, I had a dream. I told Mum, Dad, and Mickey. Anyone else would think I was mad. But not those three. They believed it, because they've met the Doctor. So they listened to the dream. And that night, we packed up; got into Dad's old Jeep and off we went. Just like the dream said. Followed the voice across the water. Kept on driving hundreds and hundreds of miles, because he's calling. Here I am at last. And this is the story of how I died.

The Doctor had found one last gap in the universe. And while a hologram of him appeared to me on Dårlig Ulv Stranden (a cruel irony that this beach was named Bad Wolf Bay, since "Bad Wolf" was always a message to me, saying that I could get back to him); he was really inside the TARDIS, orbiting a supernova so that we had two minutes to say goodbye.

"You're dead, officially, back home," he informed me, and I felt the truth of that statement, because without him, I felt dead. "So many people died that day, and you've gone missing. You're on a list of the dead. And yet here you are. Living a life day after day. The one adventure I can never have." Adventure, yeah right. As if a regular life, even given the fact that I was working for the Torchwood in this dimension, could ever compare to the adventure I had daily while travelling with the Doctor.

"Am I ever going to see you again?" I asked, even though, in the darkest part of my heart, I knew the answer.

"You can't." When he said those two words, I felt like it would have been kinder if he sent an actual knife plunging through my heart, instead of a metaphorical knife causing me to die emotionally every single day, separated from him for eternity.

I had to let him know, even though in this situation, it was a goodbye, "I-" I choked out, scolding myself for freezing up, wasting the precious two minutes that we had. "I love you." I managed to say at last.

"Quite right, too." He said, and I had to smile at that typical, egotistical comment; as if I had no choice but to love him, and I suppose that was true. "And, I suppose, if it's my last chance to say it..." I looked up. Was it possible he reciprocated my feelings? I barely managed to hold back my tears, because I so wanted to hear him say this. "Rose Tyler..." he began, but that was as far as he got. Our last two minutes together were up, and I would never know if he truly felt the same way about me as I felt about him.

I felt Mum hug me in an attempt to console me, but I felt empty. A part of me had died after Torchwood, and now another part of me was gone. But, even though I knew it would be hard, I knew that the Doctor would not want me to live my life this way. What were the last words of Emergency Program One? _"Have a good life. Do that for me, Rose. Have a fantastic life."_ As heartbreaking and as devastating as this experience was, I knew that I had to move on and continue to live. I might never love anyone romantically again, but I had something to live for: Mum's baby would need its big sister. And even though the Doctor said it was impossible for anyone to cross dimensions anymore, he had no idea what a determined companion was capable of. I would find a way back to him if it was the last thing I ever did.

* * *

_Three months later..._

"Rose, this is getting ridiculous!" Pete's practically shouted as he followed me down the stairs one morning. "I know the Doctor would love to see you again, but you're working yourself to death on this Dimension Cannon." I sighed, annoyed. He knew how important this was to me! If there was any chance for me to get back to the Doctor, I would leap at that opportunity and not stop until I was back home on the TARDIS and in the Doctor's arms.

However, Pete wasn't done quite yet. "Now, Rose, you might be the Head of Human/Alien Relations, but I'm the director of the whole company. And, as your boss, I'm ordering you to take the day off." How about that? Usually the boss insists that the workers come in to work, but now the boss was ordering a worker to take a day off. "I'm sure that we can get by one day without you."

Mum came in the front room, then, hand upon her stomach (she had begun showing about a two months ago.) and began taking Pete's side. "He's right, Rose," she said. "One day off is not going to kill you. Besides, think what the Doctor'd say if he saw what you're doing to yourself. He'd be horrified!"

Great. Not only were they ganging up on me, they were also pulling out the "What would the Doctor say?" card. And they knew, they always knew, even Pete knew, exactly what the Doctor would say if he saw me in my current condition. I sighed, realizing that I had no choice but to admit defeat. I turned to Pete.

"Promise me you'll tell me the exact amount of progress that you've made on the cannon when you come home?" I asked. "And to call me in immediately if you get it working?"

"You'll be the first to know." Pete promised.

With a final kiss on the cheek, I let him head on to Torchwood without me. He might not be my real world dad, but he did accept Jackie as his wife and me as his daughter even before the breach sealed us here. And I really did appreciate that, no matter how I acted. And, if I'm being totally honest, it was good to have a father figure in my life, even if it was twenty years since I'd had one.

The day was mostly uneventful, and I realized that I really had needed the day off. I spent most of the day in the great outdoors, exploring the woods at the back of the mansion, or swimming in Pete's private pool. Who knew that exercising, other exercise than running from evil aliens with the Doctor, could be so relaxing? Besides, I knew that I had to stay in peak running shape in case I managed to find a way back home without damaging the fabric of the universes. Unfortunately, Pete came home that afternoon to report that zip to nil progress had been made on the cannon, that no matter what they tried, they always got the same exact results, same exact power failure. Mum reminded him that she had an appointment tomorrow morning to finally find out the gender, and that did excite me; I had been wondering for a long while if I was going to have a baby brother or baby sister. My newfound big sister's hunch said that it was going to be a baby sister, but I secretly hoped that I would have a baby brother. Maybe Pete could also finally get some relief from being the only male Tyler in the house if Mum had a boy.

"Now, Rose, you go on and get to bed early tonight," Mum insisted. "You've been depriving yourself of sleep for the last three months and you barely had a nap this afternoon. One little nap is not enough to make up for three months' worth of lost sleep. What would the Doctor say?"

I barely repressed a groan of annoyance at her. She absolutely had to remind me of the Doctor? Three months after our stolen goodbye, and the hurt was still as fresh as it had been when he disappeared off of that cursed beach, even more so than it had been seven months ago when we had first been separated. However, I refused to let my annoyance show. "You're right, Mum," I agreed. "And I will need my strength for tomorrow, to try to figure out what is going wrong with this stupid Dimension Cannon." I used that to excuse myself and went up to retire for the night.

I laid down in my bed, thinking about the usual things I thought about at the end of the day: What went wrong with the Dimension Cannon this time?; Would the new addition to the Tyler family be a boy or a girl?; and Would the Dimension Cannon start working in time for me to get back the Doctor before he had to regenerate again? As always, my last thought before drifting off to sleep was what I imagine our reunion to be like: me running into his arms and both of us clinging to each other like we would never let go. And maybe I would kiss him, too, just for good measure.

* * *

I'm not entirely sure what woke me: perhaps it was the absence of my blanket, perhaps feeling grass underneath me instead of my mattress, or maybe feeling feathers underneath my hand. I blearily opened one eye and was startled awake when I noticed that, instead of my bed, I was lying in a summer meadow, with flowers in bloom all around me and blue sky up above me. I also found out that, instead of my nightgown, I was wearing my usual jeans, magenta shirt, and blue faux leather jacket. I didn't remember changing, I didn't even remember waking up. What were those feathers underneath my hand? And why was I suddenly glowing? Where was I, even?

"This is the ether realm, young one." A voice startled me into turning around. An angel stood there, only about a few feet away from me. There was a very bright glow about him, brighter than the one I was emitting, bright enough so that I had to look away for a few seconds before my eyes adjusted. I had absolutely no idea what he meant by "ether realm," since the Doctor had never mentioned it at any point when I travelled with him, but at my confused look, he elaborated. "The afterlife. You're no longer bound by time and space."

"So I'm... dead?" I asked, horrified. Snow white feathers suddenly wrapped around me from my back, and I couldn't hold back a startled shout. After calming down, I raised one of my glowing hands, touched one of the wings, and managed to trace the origin to my back, confirming that these wings were my own. Unfortunately, it also confirmed that I was dead. How had I – How had I managed to die? I had told myself, ever since we were separated, that the Doctor wouldn't want me throwing my life away. And I hadn't, I had devoted my time to finding a way of getting back to him. But how could I get back to him now, since I had died?

The angel in front of me nodded solemnly. "We've been expecting you for some time." He explained. "You've been appearing and disappearing from this realm for quite a while, even though time means nothing here. We knew that eventually, you would arrive here permanently."

Suddenly, it felt like a great burden was placed on my shoulders. I took a few deep breaths to steady myself, noticing that the colour of my wings was fading from snow white to a dull grey, and they had started to droop. A few tears leaked from my eyes, and I turned and walked away without saying another word. I could hear the angel leave me, but I found that I didn't care. My tears started flowing faster, and the glow around me faded to almost nothing. I buried my face in my hands as the sadness of the entire world and all parallels seemed to be laid on my shoulders. But my own hurt poured forth first: My separation from the Doctor, our stolen goodbye, and the knowledge that now, I truly wouldn't see him ever again, unless I somehow miraculously managed to find him when he came to the ether realm.

I didn't have any clue how long I blindly wandered, weeping uncontrollably, and although to me it felt like half an hour, although it probably would have been more like a hundred years if time actually meant something. Finally, I couldn't hold my agony in any longer, and I threw my head back, screaming, letting nearly my entire burden of sadness show to anyone who was near me. Yet, as my scream died down, I heard another voice, a male voice, softly breathe my name. "Rose..." it whispered. I hadn't told anyone here my name, so how did he know it? I whipped my head around and saw a very familiar figure wearing a pinstriped suit, with brown hair swept upwards in the front, and intense brown eyes. He, too, now had wings, which were the same golden colour as his regeneration energy, and there was a glow around him as well, but I would recognize him anywhere.

"Doctor." I murmured. The sadness was lifted off of my shoulders, my tears stopped immediately, and my strength came rushing back to me, even to my wings. The only image in my mind was how I imagined our reunion to be. And that's exactly what was happening now; I just hadn't imagined that both of us would be dead when we were reunited. As it was, I was able to use my restored wings to cross over to him faster. He took a few steps forward, holding his arms out, and I eagerly landed in his embrace, throwing my arms around his neck with a relieved gasp. My glow exploded to life and his glow also brightened significantly.

I buried my face in the crook of his neck, inhaling and rememorizing his beautiful, addicting scent. When I felt his cheek leave my hair, I looked up at him, startled, but he made no move to remove his arms from my waist, or my arms from around his neck. Instead, he kissed my remaining tears away, and I relished in the feeling of his lips against my eyes. I was gasping, drunk on the waves of what I could only guess was love radiating off of him, and telling myself that this was really happening, before finding my lips otherwise occupied. It took me a moment before I realized that he was kissing me. The Doctor was actually kissing me! My eyes slid shut and I pulled my arms slightly tighter around his neck, even though the kiss itself remained chaste.

It took us both a while, but he eventually released my lips. I was absolutely speechless, capable of nothing else but simply looking and drinking in the sight of him. As always, his face was the most beautiful (and it was only made even more beautiful by his glow), but his new wings were a close second. I was speechless at the sight of him, and his own power of speech was severely hindered too.

"Oh, _Rose_," he sighed, and I felt giddy by the way he said my name, as though it was the most beautiful word in any language. "Look at you." He ran his hand over one of my wings, and, when it bent longingly into his touch, I noticed that the colour had gone back to the snow white it had been before the sadness was placed on my shoulders.

I smiled at him, blushing slightly from his gaze and from my reaction to his touch. "You have wings, too," I informed him, and a small giggle escaped my lips when an astonished expression appeared on his face. Apparently, he hadn't known, so I gently coaxed one of his wings around to where he could see, finally allowing myself to touch those beautiful golden feathers that now sprouted from his back. His wing curled around and followed my touch to where it stretched out beside us. My smile widened slightly. "My Lonely Angel finally gets his wings." I whispered lovingly. I instantly began to regret not being careful and calling him mine, but when I saw the corners of his mouth twitch up in a smile, I realized that he had never minded it whenever I called him mine. In fact, he wanted to be called mine.

* * *

For the first time since our goodbye in Norway, I was finally able to lie down and relax. My Doctor lay down next to me (and I barely resisted the urge to run my fingers over his wings again), his fingers gently intertwining with mine, comforting me after I had reluctantly admitted that I had suddenly died only three months after Bad Wolf Bay, even though I had tried to hold on, if not for my own sake, then for the sake of Mum and the baby. My thoughts wandered to the family that I had left behind, the little brother or sister that I never knew, and I groaned in slight discomfort, a memory of the sadness returning.

"Rose?" the Doctor asked, slight fear coloring his voice. "What's wrong?"

"'M just tired." I reassured him. "Until I finally saw you... well you probably remember. It felt like the sadness the entire world, and all parallel worlds, was weighed on my shoulders. It's not a burden that can easily be forgotten." That was half true. Maybe I would tell him about how I felt having to leave behind my unborn brother or sister, but I wasn't exactly in the mood for saying it right now.

He shifted slightly, and I saw that he was now lying on his side, smiling gently at me. "I think you need a Doctor." He softly declared before leaning down and pressing another kiss to my lips. I couldn't help but smile into the kiss as I remembered the first Doctor that I accompanied saying that very same phrase on the Gamestation after I destroyed nearly all the Daleks. My memories of Bad Wolf and absorbing the Time Vortex had been fuzzy at first, but when I had arrived in the ether realm, everything had come rushing back.

My eyelids began drooping, but I fought sleep off. How could I possibly sleep, when I had just been reunited with my Doctor? True, we had all eternity now, but I didn't want to sleep just yet. What if he left me yet again? I didn't think I would be able to cope with that if he did. But I soon felt him draw me into his arms and plant another kiss to my forehead. "Sleep, my Rose," I heard him murmur, and my heart leaped when he called me his, like I called him mine. "I'll still be here when you wake up. I'm never letting you go again," he reassured me.

Why did his voice have to be so seductive? As soon as he finished, my eyes fluttered shut, my wings folded themselves up against my back and I snuggled up against his chest. A memory of my life suddenly crossed my mind: him asking me how long I would stay with him and me responding that I would stay with him forever; however, our very next adventure was the one where we were separated. But since we were now both dead and had transcended time and space... "I can finally give you that forever I promised you." I whispered to him, allowing a peaceful smile to cross my face.

Sleep began to fog my mind, but I could have sworn that I felt him pull me closer to him, wrap his own wings around both himself and me, press his lips to my hair and whisper in my ear, "Rose Tyler, I love you."


	2. I Won't Leave You

**A/N: Okay, so I was asked to continue this (even though it was meant to be a one-shot), so I did. Hopefully that'll garner a few more reviews. I actually managed to finish this even though I just saw **"The End of Time, Part 2," **(the episode where he regenerates into 11) and, of course, was crying when he said goodbye to Rose. I'm trying to take comfort in the fact that both David and Billie will be back for the 50th anniversary episode in November. Who else is excited about that? I fangirled so badly when I found out. Anyway, enjoy.**

* * *

The Doctor stirred slightly, unwilling to wake up and end the dream, the one where he and Rose were finally together for eternity. Some parts of the dream, such as the part about both him and Rose being dead, he was happy with, even though he would have preferred it if they were both still alive. But there was another part of the dream that he wanted to remember for the rest of his life: Rose's truly angelic appearance, at least after she had been... healed he guessed was the word for the change she had undergone. He remembered how the feathers of her pure, snow-white wings shone in the sunlight; remembered the glow around her that gently bathed her face in a golden light. But most of all, he remembered that he finally got to tell her that he loved – no, _still_ _loves_ – her. His arms involuntarily tightened around the object that he was clutching to his chest and made one last wish that the dream was real before forcing his eyes open.

Two shades of gold filled his eyes, and at the edge of his vision, there was a small glimpse of snow white. The shade of gold above him, the deeper shade, was exactly the same colour as his regeneration energy. In order to view the lighter shade of gold, the one right in front of him dominating his vision, he had to pull back slightly. His mouth dropped open when he saw that what he held in his arms was the angel known as Rose Tyler, the lighter shade of gold being her hair. She was still sleeping, her eyes peacefully closed and her chest softly rising and falling as she breathed. Hardly daring to hope, but at the same time becoming more and more convinced that this was real, he raised his hand, the one that wasn't pinned under Rose's body, to touch the snow white colour he had seen upon waking and gasped when he felt the soft feathers of her wings. If he hadn't been afraid of waking her, he would have laughed in relief that it hadn't been a dream, and now would never be a dream. As he gazed upon her, he saw that another change had taken place while they had slept, and a halo now encircled her head, making her face shine even brighter that it already did.

His hand came up to stroke her hair, reveling in the feeling of the soft strands falling through his fingers. But, what felt like moments later, Rose began to stir; curling in on herself and squeezing her eyes shut even tighter, a single tear trailing its way down her cheek. A frightened, broken moan escaped her lips, and the Doctor realized that she was scared of something. He gently wrapped his wings tighter around her, pulled her even closer to him, and locked his fingers more firmly in her hair, not enough to where it would hurt her, but enough so that, if she was awake, she would feel it. With horror, he noticed that the colour of her wings was beginning to fade back to grey.

"Rose, wake up." He whispered desperately, gently rubbing circles on her back, right at the base of her wings, in an attempt to comfort her. "Rose, please. You're scaring me. Wake up."

Her eyes suddenly snapped open and she shot up, out of the shelter of his arms and wings. She started looking around frantically, her breath coming in short, terrified pants. She began walking around in circles, a haunted look in her eyes. More tears began to flow down her face, and she began to look as she had when he had first seen her; drooping grey wings, faded glow, and crying as though all joy had left the world.

"Rose, please," the Doctor begged her, standing up, going to her, and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Tell me what's wrong."

Her head turned towards him, and, though her eyes had looked in his direction ever since she had woken up, he got the feeling that now was the first time she actually registered his presence. She sighed and gasped in relief, her wings once again snow white and her glow restored to its true brightness. Her arms came up and she clung to him, wrapping her wings around him almost possessively. He willingly wrapped one arm around her waist and the other arm around her shoulders (refraining from embracing her with his wings), but he was still worried about her.

"I was so scared." She whispered, and he could feel more of her tears falling onto the fabric of his suit. "I thought I would wake up alone. Either – either you'd have left me, or I'd wake up back on – on that parallel world, and this would all have been a dream."

She was shaking now, she was sobbing so hard, and his arms tightened around her again, but this time, he did wrap his wings around her, and she was slightly comforted by the touch. His fingers, which had been playing with the hair falling around her shoulders, slowly travelled up and gently began to move over her halo. Her sobs quickly began to subside as he stroked the ring of light crowning her brow, and he kissed the top of her head in comfort and encouragement. Her fingers locked in his hair, just below the halo that he now felt resting on his own head.

"You were afraid I'd be gone, right?" he asked her, and then he felt her nod her head against his shoulder. "Well, there's really only one way for me to remedy that: I'm never going to leave your side again." She pulled her head back, looking like she was about to say something, but he silenced her by removing his hand from her waist and gently placing his index finger over her lips. "Rose, you already promised me your forever. Now I'm officially promising you mine. And that's exactly what we have now: forever." He felt her wings withdrawing from their grip on him, but he didn't yet pull his own back. "I know I already said it, but you were nearly completely asleep when I did. Now that you're awake, I should probably say it again: Rose Tyler, I love you, too."

Her heart leaped when she truly heard him finally finish the sentence he had started on Bad Wolf Bay. However, before she had a chance to become too shocked, he took advantage of having his hand positioned behind her head and brought her lips to his; in that one action, he chased away all the fears she had of him ever leaving her. He felt pure joy radiating off of her for the first time, even from when they had first travelled together when they both were alive, and she felt a sense of absolute security, locked in the embrace of his arms and wings.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you guys liked it. Review, review, review! And by the way, since all these are semi-unrelated one-shots, I will not be changing the status of the story to incomplete. It could go on for a long time. Remember, they have all eternity together now.**


	3. Learning to Fly

_**WARNING: THE LEVELS OF FLUFF CONTAINED IN THIS CHAPTER COULD CAUSE MILD CAVITIES! READ AT THE RISK OF YOUR OWN DENTAL HEALTH!**_

_A/N: Seriously, this chapter is very fluffy. The ending might be a little rushed, because my stupid computer kept spazzing out on me and deleting parts of this, so I had to re-type. By the time I was at the end, I was kinda ready to be done with writing this chapter._

* * *

"Rose?" the Doctor asked, his hand pausing from where it was stroking her arm.

"Hmm?" she groaned softly, moving her head out from where it was resting under his chin, blinking sleep out of her eyes, and raising her face to his. "What is it; what's wrong?" she asked, beginning to get worried when she saw the unsure look on his face.

"Nothing's wrong," he reassured her quickly and she visibly relaxed. "I was just wondering... you said you had been here since three months after Bad Wolf Bay?" Rose nodded, choosing not to speak, since she never liked remembering the events of that fatal day. "I was just wondering..." he asked, "if, at any point, you had been able to-" he broke off, unsure of how to word the question. "You know – were you able to teach yourself how to-" he broke off again, but this time he cast a meaningful glance towards her wings.

"To fly?" she guessed, and he nodded. "No." She answered his question. "I couldn't, remember? My wings were drooping because of the sadness."

"Well, there had to be a point before the sadness, right?" he asked her. "Maybe before you knew what had happened to you?"

"Yes, there was," she responded. "And then the wings confirmed that I was dead. That was when the sadness came. Those little jumps you saw me taking when we were reunited? That was my first flight. And I obviously haven't been able, or been bothered, to learn properly since then; you'd know if I had. Besides," she finished, smiling, closing her eyes once again, snuggling in even closer to his chest, and lazily draping one of her wings over the both of them, "I'm perfectly content to spend the rest of eternity just like this; exactly as we are at this very moment."

"We'll learn together, then," he told her. She raised her head again, confusion slightly visible in her honey eyes. "To fly," he clarified. "Come on!" He shifted his arms so that he was holding her hands and stood up, pulling her up with him. He shook out his golden wings to wake them up before extending them to their full length. He gave a few experimental flaps before grinning at her. "How hard could it be?"

Rose, too, stretched out her snow white wings. But when she tested hers, she was able to lift herself about an inch off the ground. It didn't last very long and nearly immediately afterwards she came down for a very wobbly landing, but she was still airborne for a single second. The Doctor quickly steadied her in his arms, his grin widening. "See? You're already able to get yourself in the air. Well, granted you've flown before, but still. Since you seem to already have the hang of it, do you want to try first to stay in the air indefinitely?"

"Umm... sure." She said. But, no matter how hard she tried, she only managed to raise herself up a few more inches, and that during only a few tries. "I don't get it." She wondered. "What am I not doing?"

"Here, I've got an idea." The Doctor said, placing his hands so that he was firmly gripping her waist, after making sure that the position of his hands wouldn't impede her wings. "I'll give you a boost."

She looked into his eyes and nodded, placing her absolute trust in him. He gripped her waist even tighter, and, when she nodded again to signal to him that she was ready, he gently threw her into the air. Instantly, she began moving her wings again, and this time, instead of coming back down, she stayed airborne, her wings moving gracefully. Both of them were silent for a moment, Rose gasping in astonishment at the realization that she was actually flying, before they both began giggling excitedly.

"Hang on," Rose said as she landed. "Now I'm the one who has an idea." She bent her knees and pushed off, successfully launching herself into the air. For a moment, she looked like she was incredibly annoyed at herself. "Bending my knees." She declared before bursting into laughter. "That's what I wasn't doing!"

"Are you serious?" he asked her, barely managing to get the question out before joining her in laughter.

"Yes!" she gasped, nearly beginning to hiccup, she was laughing so hard. The two laughed for what could have been an entire generation before finally calming down. "Now, my Lonely Angel," she said, holding out her hand and rising a little higher (but not high enough for her hand to be out of his reach). "Are you ready to spread your wings at last?"

He grinned at her, took her hand, and leaped into the air alongside her. The two were content to hover quietly for a while, still holding hands and allowing their fingers to intertwine and dance before Rose suddenly yanked her hand away. The Doctor looked up in shock, afraid of why she may have done so. There was an excited gleam in her eyes, and that, combined with her famous (and all-too-familiar) tongue-in-teeth grin, guaranteed imminent mischief. That feeling was immediately proven true when Rose cheekily dared him, "Catch me, if you can!" and darted away from him as fast as her wings could carry her, but she made sure to stop far enough away for him to be sure that she had a game in mind. "Well, Doctor?" she teased. "What are you waiting for?"

"Why you little!" the Doctor exclaimed in mock indignation. He immediately flew after her, only to have her rocket upwards just before he would have caught her. He heard her bubbling laughter from just above him, but when he tried to catch her again, she dropped down. He tried again several times, but each time, she would dart away; sometimes she would evade him long before he would have reached her, and sometimes she would zip away just as his fingers brushed her wrist.

"What's wrong, Doctor?" she teased as she avoided him yet again, even though he very nearly caught her that time. "Are the wings still a bit too new for you?"

"Oi!" he scolded her playfully. "This is your first proper flight, too!"

"And I'm still managing to outfly you, Mr. 'Superior Time Lord'!" she laughed.

An amused growl sounded in his throat. "Oh, you're asking for it now, Rose Tyler!"

This time, he was the one to rocket upwards, causing her to pause in her game to try to search the skies for him. This, however, was his plan, and as soon as her head was turned away, he dove down so that he was flying underneath her. As he watched her watch for him, he noticed that, as she turned, she held her hand out, and when he saw that, he grinned at the open invitation. He knew he had to time it just right, but the timing would be easy for a Time Lord, even a dead one. He made sure she was looking in the opposite direction before silently gliding up behind her.

"Gotcha!" he exclaimed as he grabbed her wrist, causing her to cry out in both shock and delight as she turned around to face him, and when she did, both of them burst out laughing yet again.

"Doctor," Rose stated after they had both calmed down, "I'm reluctant to, but can we land? I have an idea."

Slowly, the two of them landed; the feeling of anything but wind underneath their feet already strange. Rose brought her right wing around and tugged at one of the snow-white feathers, wincing slightly, as it stung when it came out. The Doctor reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, afraid that the action had hurt her much more than it actually had. Rose smiled at him reassuringly before holding out the feather. "We should exchange a single feather," she suggested. "That way, in case we're forced to separate yet again, the feathers will be a promise that we'll also be able to find each other again."

"I already promised that I'm not letting you go again," he told her, taking the offered feather, "but it is a good idea!" he hastily agreed. He brought his own golden wing around, and when he pulled out a feather to give to her, the white one attached itself into the place where the golden one had just been. Both of them exchanged a grin at this new development before the Doctor held out the golden feather. Rose accepted it and brought her wing around and allowed the golden feather to seal itself into the spot where she had pulled out her feather.

The two stretched their wings out and admired the exchanged feathers before grinning again at each other. They brought their wings around so that tips were touching, grasped hands so that their fingers were intertwining, and whispered, solemnly and assuredly, "Forever. I promise you."

* * *

**_Don't forget to review!_**


	4. Family Reunions

**A/N: So this is one of the chapters that you have all been waiting for, because it answers this question: What happened to Rose's family after she died? Don't forget to favorite or leave a review.**

* * *

Rose and the Doctor lay across from each other, smiling contentedly, occasionally exchanging Spiderman-style kisses, occasionally just caressing each other's hands. To the Doctor, Rose had never seemed more beautiful as she flaunted a cat-like ability to stretch out and make her body look longer than it was; her wings gracefully folded underneath her; and her hair gently fanned out around her face, creating a second halo, accompanying the one that encircled her forehead. As he gazed at her, he felt her right hand come up and her fingers begin playing over his own halo. He grinned at her before catching her hand with his own and caressing the back of hers with his thumb. It was a moment of perfect peace.

However, that peace was shattered when the body of a young boy came falling from the sky and landed, very ungracefully, only a few metres away from them with a loud "OOF!"

Rose and the Doctor immediately started up, both out of shock and concern for the boy. Now that they could see him, they saw he was only about ten years old, with brown eyes, reddish-yellow hair, and his wings had an earthy tan hint to them. The Doctor didn't know what it was, but something about the boy's eyes was familiar.

"Are you all right?" Rose asked the boy. "What were you trying to do? And are your parents here, or any relatives?"

"I'm fine!" the boy exclaimed, apparently not bothered in the slightest by his rather spectacular crash landing. "I was trying to see how high I can fly. Problem is; I have to teach myself how to fly, since neither Mum nor Dad have wings." He tried to demonstrate hovering, but he was very, very wobbly and fell back to the ground after only a few seconds ether realm "time." "I really want to be able to fly as high as big angels, like you two, but I can't seem to be able to fly much higher than a tree. I think it's because my wings are too small."

"No, it's not your wing size, silly. It might have something to do with how fast you're moving your wings." The Doctor suggested. "You're not a hummingbird, for goodness sake." He and Rose both jumped into the air, moving their wings slowly, and their hovering was smooth as glass. "Try it like this."

The boy looked slightly nervous, but he took her advice. He began to hover again, this time, moving his wings as slowly as Rose and the Doctor were moving their own wings. "It worked!" he exclaimed after a while, his enthusiasm causing both Rose and the Doctor to giggle.

The boy started blushing as they all landed. "Actually, to answer your question what I was doing, well, I really was trying to see how high I could fly, but I was really trying to find my big sister. She died before I was born, but Mum told me all sorts of stories about her, and the man that she took off to see the stars with. Said that she was the Defender of the Earth."

Rose and the Doctor exchanged shocked glances. His sister had been called the 'Defender of the Earth'? But wasn't that what he said to her, when she had told him that she was working for Parallel Torchwood during their goodbye on Bad Wolf Bay? "What's your name?" Rose asked.

"Tony," the boy introduced himself. "Tony Tyler. My sister's name was Rose. Actually, from Mum's descriptions, she'd look a lot like you," he said to Rose. "Have you seen anyone like her?"

Rose smiled sadly at him. "Tony," she whispered gently, "I _am_ the big sister you never knew; I'm Rose. The Doctor here," she nodded in her Time Lord's direction, "rescued me the first time we met. He grabbed my hand in the basement of the shop where I worked and said 'Run'."

"And we'd been running ever since," the Doctor finished. "At least, until the Battle of Canary Wharf happened, and we were separated by the parallel worlds."

"Mum told me about that, too," Tony informed them. "How you burned up a sun to say goodbye to my sister." He smiled, slightly wistfully, at the two of them. "I'm glad that you've found each other again."

"Is Mum here?" Rose asked her little brother, her throat beginning to seize up, due to the lump that was steadily forming. "I want to see her again."

Tony nodded. "Follow me. Dad's here, too."

Rose didn't know whether to feel happy or sad at that bit of information as she and the Doctor flew behind Tony. Was it her real dad from her own dimension; was it her parallel dad, Tony's father; or were both versions merged into one person with the memories of both? Rose was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice when Tony descended. The two adults waited for a moment, and soon Jackie's voice reached them.

"Tony! There you are; where were you? Your father and I were so worried –" Jackie broke off when she caught sight of her daughter and the alien that her daughter had run off with landing in front of her. Something in Rose's mind instinctively told her that this was both versions of Jackie merged into one person. And the same went for Pete, who was standing just next to Jackie.

"Hey, Mum." Rose whispered, nervous about how her parents would react to seeing her again. "Hey, Dad."

Jackie's mouth dropped open when she saw her daughter once again, but she soon recovered from her shock. "Oh, Rose!" she exclaimed running forward and embracing her daughter, and embrace which Rose eagerly returned. "Figures," Jackie whispered in her ear. "My kids get wings, but me and Pete, no, we're stuck walking!" As she pulled away, she lightly slapped Rose upside the head, not hard enough to where it would seriously hurt, but definitely enough for the younger girl to feel it and know that her mother was upset at her.

"Mum!" Rose gasped, rubbing the back of her head. "Yeah, I'm glad to see you both again, too. What was that for?" The Doctor gently rubbed her neck and shoulders, but one glance at his eyes told her that he thought her getting a slap from her mum was a bit amusing, especially considering the fact that he had received more than his fair share of slaps from Jackie Tyler.

"That was for dying on us two months before Tony was born!" Jackie scolded.

* * *

_Flashback..._

Pete and Jackie returned from her appointment laughing about how Pete was no longer the only male Tyler in the house, since they had just received the news that the baby Jackie was carrying was a boy. "I feel slightly bad for Rose," Jackie said, pretending to sound wistful. "She was so looking forward to having a baby sister."

"Speaking of Rose," Pete changed the subject, noticing that Rose's car was still in the drive. "What's her car still doing here? She should be at work already; the appointment ran a little late." Just as he finished speaking, his cell phone rang, and the caller ID revealed it to be Mickey. "Mickey, perfect timing!" Pete answered the phone. "Rose's car is still here; did you pick her up and give her a lift?"

"So she's still at home?" Mickey asked. "Reason I called is that she's not here yet, and we're all gettin' kinda worried, given that you and her are usually here before any of us."

"That's weird." Pete mused, entering the house. He went up the stairs, still talking to Mickey and each discussing the possibilities of where Rose could be. On a whim, he opened the door to Rose's bedroom, expecting to find it empty. Instead, he jumped when he was greeted with the sight of his daughter, still in bed. He quickly let Mickey know that he had found Rose before hanging up the phone. Even though he wanted to let her sleep until the toll that the past three months had taken on her was gone (he wanted to, he really wanted to, especially when he noticed how pale her skin was), but sadly, he couldn't. Reluctantly, he went to go grab her hand, but he dropped it immediately when he felt how cold she was. Hesitantly, he pushed her covers back enough to feel for her pulse. Nothing.

Pete took a few deep breaths, attempting to reconcile himself with the fact that his daughter was dead. He quickly dialed Mickey's number again, and he was grateful when the young man answered on the first ring. "Mickey," Pete reported, forcing back tears. "Tell them to stop working on the Dimension Cannon."

"Woah, boss," Mickey stated. "Did I hear you correctly; you want us to stop our work on the Dimension Cannon?" He laughed, and Pete had to grit his teeth and remind himself that Mickey didn't know yet what had happened. "You'd better hope that Rose isn't in the same room."

"Mickey," Pete choked out, and a few tears broke past his barrier. "Rose is dead."

That stopped Mickey short. "She- she's... _dead?_ How?"

"I don't know." Pete replied, honestly. "I really and truly don't know." Hanging up on Mickey, Torchwood's director took one last look at her face – the painful, longing expression that she wore made it easy to guess who she had been dreaming of when she had died – before drawing the covers up over her head.

_End flashback..._

* * *

"The coroner said that your body just shut down." Pete finished. When her parents had started their story, Tony had stepped forward and clung to his big sister's legs, but as her father finished, all of them had been forced to sit, due to the fact that their knees had gone weak. Tony still clung to his sister's neck, and the Doctor had an arm and wing curled around Rose's shoulders.

"Mum, Dad," Rose breathed, "I'm so sorry." She leaned forward and embraced her parents as best as she could, what with her little brother still clinging to her. However, as soon as she pulled away, she switched her tune. "Tony," she addressed the boy, "how about we get away from the adults for a moment and get to know each other like we couldn't in life? Besides, I get the feeling that Mum and Dad are gonna start demanding explanations from the Doctor anytime now." Tony eagerly nodded before wriggling his way out of his sister's arms and flying off. The other three watched as Rose lazily stretched out her wings before giving chase.

"I oughta slap you again for what you did to her." Jackie stated, and the Doctor instinctively flinched at the thought of being on the receiving end of yet another Tyler slap. "But I'm not going to," she finished, and he visibly relaxed.

"Rose was right, though; we do want explanations." Pete said, sounding very much like the alternate dimension's Director Pete Tyler of Torchwood. "The coroner said that her body had simply shut down. There are only two reasons that would happen: grief or time simply ran out on her. We knew that she was grieving, but she threw herself into her work, not letting the grief overwhelm her. So, how could her body have shut down when she was perfectly healthy otherwise?"

The Doctor paused for a moment before saying, "Because she never existed in that parallel world." He sighed, running his hands over his face. "Jackie," he addressed the older Tyler woman, "you and Mickey could survive in the parallel world because there had been parallel versions of you in that world. Admittedly, its version of Mickey had been killed in our first visit there, and you probably remember what happened to its version of you, but the timelines in that dimension were familiar with your biological codes. Even though its versions of you and Mickey had died, you two were bio-matching receptacles for the leftover timelines, so you were able to survive there. Rose, however, was a different matter. She's unique to one specific universe, the one that she was born in. I think that's why she has wings; she only existed in one dimension. Anyway, since the timelines in the parallel world were unfamiliar, they simply left her alone.

"Between Canary Wharf and Norway, there were still cracks, and her timelines were able to leak from her universe to the parallel, and she was able to survive on those. However, after Bad Wolf Bay, the last gap was sealed. There was a bit of residue clinging to the scars, but barely enough." He looked over to where Rose and Tony were currently engaged in what appeared to be an epic game of Tickle Monster. "Three months later, there was no more of the residue left for her to survive on. Her time was up."

The Doctor's explanation was cut off there by Tony leading Rose back over to the others, both of them laughing in the way that only siblings can. Tony hid behind his parents in an attempt to protect himself from Rose, who clearly was better at Tickle Monster than he was used to.

Rose grinned at her little brother before whispering to her mother, "If you're ever playing Tickle Monster with him, make sure you hit the spot right next to his right wing first. That'll keep him on the ground for, hopefully, the rest of the game."

"I'll keep that in mind!" Jackie giggled.

Rose once again took up her expected place at the Doctor's side before turning back to her parents. "I'm glad we were able to find you all again. But I have to ask, what happened to the parallel universe?"

"After the reality bomb incident - ask him! - we thought that was going to be it for alien run-ins for us." Jackie explained. "However, nine years later, another group of aliens arrived; called themselves the Belletani. We tried to reason with them, but they wouldn't even see our ambassadors. If they have their sights set on destroying a planet, there's nothing that can stop them, since they were the most advanced species out there in that universe." She looked to the Doctor, "and don't start beating yourself up over it, mister. Time Lords didn't exist in that universe, so there was no one to stop them."

"Oh, Mum." Rose sighed, once again hugging her mother.

"Well, enough about us!" Pete interjected. "There are probably other people you want to meet up with; Rose mentioned a Sarah Jane Smith while she was still with us?"

"And I want to meet some of your companions who came after me." Rose interjected.

"If you ever run into Martha and Donna, I think you'll like those two, Rose," Jackie told her. "I met them during the reality bomb incident, and both of them seemed like they really knew what they were doing and what they had gotten themselves into, especially Donna."

Rose was reluctant to part with her family yet again, but eventually she did, promising over and over that she would find them again soon.

As the two flew off to find and meet up with other companions, Rose's flight pattern suddenly wavered. She shook it off when the Doctor first cast a concerned look in her direction, but after she faltered twice, she had no choice but to glide down and land. She sank to the ground, drew her knees up to her chest, and draped her wings around her, partially hiding her from view.

"Rose?" the Doctor asked. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry." She choked out, and he could tell that she was about to start crying again. "It's just – seeing my family again... It reminded me of how much I missed them immediately after I died." She was starting to cry in earnest now, but the Doctor noted with relief that her glow didn't fade and her wings remained snow white. "I just need a moment to myself," she said, wrapping her wings all the way around her.

The Doctor nodded and knelt down next to her, gently stroking her back through her wings. He didn't know exactly for how long she was crying, but soon, at least it felt like soon to him, that he felt her stretch out underneath her wings, and he saw her bare toes peeking out from the tips, and he barely resisted the urge to tickle her. After she relaxed, he saw her poke her hand out from her shelter, and he wasted no time in grasping it and caressing it. After a few strokes over the back of her hand, she withdrew her wings and he gently cuddled her to him, wiping away her tears in the process. Soon she was fast asleep.

"The Lonely Angel and the weeping angel," he mused aloud. Their titles were not entirely appropriate anymore, he realized. From now on, he would always have his weeping angel to hold his hand, and she would always have her Lonely Angel there to dry her tears.


End file.
